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Uranium miner files lawsuit over new state regulations

A Canadian company with plans for an enormous uranium mine in Weld County filed suit earlier this week claiming new state mining rules are "unreasonable, arbitrary, capricious and otherwise contrary to law."

The lawsuit, filed Monday in Denver District Court by Powertech Inc., names the Colorado Mined Land Reclamation Board and Mike King, executive director of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources, as defendants.

The company claims that rules and regulations adopted in August by the state to protect groundwater against damage created by the "in-situ" method of uranium mining are too restrictive.

The lawsuit asks the court to examine the rules adopted by the board to determine whether it violated Colorado statutory rulemaking requirements and the state's constitution.

"We feel some improvements can be made and others are outside the bounds of what the Colorado legislature intended," said Powertech attorney John Fognani.

Mine opponents said the lawsuit proves Powertech cannot be trusted to run and properly clean up the in-situ operation planned near the town of Nunn in north Weld County.

The in-situ method calls for injecting chemicals and water to leach uranium from underground rock.

"Powertech has told us from the very beginning they could and would restore our water," said Robin Davis, whose ranch is adjacent to the proposed mine site. "Now that we have regulations in place that will hold them accountable to their word, they sue the state for protecting its resources. It's insulting."

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The new rules were crafted in a two-year process and were supported by various conservation groups along with several local governments, said Jeff Parsons, a lawyer for the Western Mining Action Project, who represented community groups while the rules were being pieced together.

Parsons said this is the second time in recent weeks the uranium mining industry has sued state mining regulators to weaken groundwater protections. In September, Cotter Corp. sued the state mining board over cleanup orders at Cotter's Schwartzwalder Mine, which drains into Denver Water supplies on Ralston Creek near Golden.

"The uranium mining industry in Colorado is wrong to keep fighting water-quality protections and better public involvement," Parsons said.

The mining industry, however, said the new rules would choke exploration of uranium in Colorado at a time when the chemical is in high demand for fueling nuclear power plants.

The lawsuit challenges a list of specific rules as laid out by the state.

According to the lawsuit, one of the rules requires applicants to document reclamation work at five in-situ mining operations, not necessarily their own. "These rules require information about other operations permitted some time in the past, or at other locations by an operator unrelated to the applicant, and are therefore arbitrary, capricious, prejudicial and void for vagueness."

Another rule authorizes a "discretionary denial of a permit" if the mining reclamation board has "uncertainty" about the feasibility of a reclamation. "This provision is confusing, vague and unnecessary," since the agency already has the authority, and responsibility, to deny a permit if an applicant can't reach reclamation standards, according to the lawsuit.

Fognani said Powertech would still be able to meet the requirements of any state permitting process if the rules remain intact.

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